Muppitz - for the last 3 years at Whitby, I've had to resort to writing a shanty for Jim Mageean's bad shirts and shanties session on Wednesday, in case someone else sang one of the few shanties I sing, before the singing got round to me. This one comes from the year that Theresa won the Saltburn shanty singing competition.....

SING 'EM LOUD - SHANTY SESSION PLAN B* (Kitty Vernon 22 August 2001)

I'm feeling sad and so forlorn
Sing 'em loud
Can't help the gender I was born
Sing 'em loud

We weedy women high and shrill
Sing 'em loud
Can't compete with Jim or Bill
Sing 'em loud

While they are belting out each word
Sing 'em loud
We women struggle to be heard
Sing 'em loud

But there is one who breaks the rule she
Sings 'em loud
Her name it is Theresa Tooley, she
Sings 'em loud


TUNE: Bring 'em down

*Plan A was for all the women singers (except Theresa Tooley) to sit near where Jim Mageean was expected to start the singing, so their repertoire of shanties wouldn't have been exhausted by the time the singing reached them. Plan B was the result of someone suggesting that by day 4 of his maritime singarounds Jim might have decided to send the singing round in the other direction….

Kitty